The LuLac Edition #196, April 11th, 2007

PICTURE INDEX: FISHING SEASON IS HERE AND CARL ROMANELLI'S IN THE MOVIES!

FISHING FOR FUN

Council candidate Tim Grier dropped a line on a fun event going on this weekend in the area. Here's what it's about:

What: American Legion Post 609's Annual Children's Trout Fishing Derby.

When: Saturday April 14th, 8am - ?

How much: FREE for children 15 and under and their parents

Where: Hanover Township Industrial Park, Pond at the State Police/LCB Barracks. This is an annual event sponsored by Post 609 for children and their families to have the opportunity to spend time together appreciating the outdoors. Post 609 will be stocking the pond Friday afternoon, so there will be plenty of fish for the children to catch. Veterans and their families are encouraged to attend. Prizes will be awarded and refreshments will be available. Donations are still being accepted. Contact John Maloney, 829-2562 for more information. Mrs. LuLac was the child fisherman in our family, she used to go fishing with her dad up in the Poconos at Stillwater Lake and on a stream off Jumper Road in Plains. My father tried to teach me but there was an incident with the hook and his ear and we never did it again. But I'm sure this will be great fun.

BASEBALL

Thanks to my good friend Pat Fadden, Mrs. LuLac and I attended a Yankee game at PNC Park Tuesday. As Bob Uecker used to say, "we were in the front row". I navigated the steps o the box seats at field level and we watched a very good game. We froze but if I was going to be a popsicle, it would be a front row popsicle. The season ticket we recieved had Commissioner Munchak's photo on it, we were treated to the new mascot, Scooter, the Holy Cow and was glad to see our old broadcast buddy from the X Freddie roaming the stands. As the boys took the field, there was video of Brian Cashman talking about Cordaro landing the Yanks. For a political junkie like me that was big but no one in the stands reacted in any way. Great game, great grass, great seats. Thanks Patrick.

JOE DANIEL SPEAKS

Joe Daniel, candidate in District D recently penned a letter in the Times Leader. Here's what he had to say:

For the May 15 primary, Wilkes-Barre voters will no longer have the option of voting for seven council members citywide. Five districts have been established and they will only be able to vote for one council member within their district.
Critics of this plan argue that council members will only be concerned with issues in their districts. However, some city residents have stated for years that their “area” has been neglected. City residents will now know who their go-to person is and should be represented equally.
Council members should be accessible, approachable and their residents’ concerns, safety and welfare should be their number-one priority. They can establish two-way communication with their residents by attending crime-watch meetings, community events and organizing volunteer cleanups within their districts.
Council members’ responsibilities will remain the same by voting on the city budget and enacting ordinances that protect all city residents, visitors and workers.
Council members should be the “checks and balances” of the administration and need to work closely with the mayor and department heads to determine their needs to provide the best services possible throughout the city.
I encourage everyone to vote. Those who are not registered may do so until April 16.
Joe Daniel

Democratic city council candidate

District D Wilkes-Barre

ROMO ON THE SILVER SCREEN

Al Gore's not the only one getting exposure in a documentary. The party that gave us George Bush in 2000 and nominated Romanelli for the U.S. Senate is the subject of a documentary. Check this story out:

Carl Romanelli, a perennial political activist who has stated professions varying from railroad consultant to family court official, can add another to his resume: movie star.
Well, at least the focus of “Ain’t Easy Being Green,” a sympathetic documentary filmed by a University of Pennsylvania student.
The film tracks Romanelli, who gained brief, but national, notoriety in 2006 when he jumped into what pundits considered one of the nation’s most controversial U.S. Senate campaigns between former Sen. Rick Santorum and current Sen. Bob Casey Jr.
As a Green Party candidate, Romanelli was expected to siphon votes away from Casey. Republican activists responded by supporting Romanelli. Democrats successfully challenged many of the signatures the Romanelli campaign collected, resulting in his being unceremoniously booted from the ballot.
More than 100 people showed up Monday for the film’s first public viewing at Penn, creating an assembly of preppy college students, scruffy, bespeckled hippies and well-heeled scholars decidedly unlike the average political rally.
Latching on to Romanelli’s characteristic verbosity, filmmaker Stephen Robert Morse followed the Wilkes-Barre resident through his ill-fated senatorial run, often highlighting the ridiculous rhetorical sparring that typifies campaigns.
The film poses thoughtful questions about the apparent death lock of the major parties and yet remains humorous, often at the expense of Santorum and Casey. With his quirky attitude, Romanelli proves his own comedic foil, often resorting to what seems like futile rabble-rousing rather than realistic campaigning.
Morse joins in at the end, helping Romanelli ambush Casey as he arrives for an interview at WYOU. With a camera in Casey’s face, he demands as a constituent to know why Casey, “a rich man,” hasn’t dropped a court decision against Romanelli, “a poor man,” of $80,000 for legal fees incurred in the signature challenges.
Scenes of Wilkes-Barre are splashed throughout the film, at times affirming its coal-town roots. Chuckles rippled through the crowd when one woman said she sympathized with Romanelli for being blocked from the “rebates,” obviously meaning “debates.”
Morse said he decided to follow the race through Romanelli after “I realized I could get a lot more access to Carl.” Being a reporter for Penn’s student paper helped him get political celebrity sound bites, including an outrageous gem from homosexual Seattle columnist Dan Savage, who said, “Carl Romanelli should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope.”
Romanelli, who saw the film for the first time on Monday, seemed pleased, saying it depicted the insurmountable odds third-party candidates must overcome.
The filmmakers are submitting the film to festivals and scored one victory so far, having been accepted to the Rainier Independent Film Festival in May.
After the showing, a panel of three Penn professors discussed the film and its implications on American politics.
Jack Nagel, a political science professor, called the film a “compelling portrait of an excruciating dilemma” third-party candidates face by running on platforms that might steal votes from the major-party candidates they’d otherwise prefer.
“There was nothing to fear from Carl Romanelli,” said Walter Licht, a history professor, noting the Democrats’ overreaction. “I think it was a hangover from 2000. There wasn’t going to be a third-party candidate in Pennsylvania.”
But David Eisenhower, a historian and communications professor, said what perhaps epitomizes major-party followers’ sentiment toward independents. “I spent the day reading about the Green Party so I’d have something to say tonight.”

Maybe a deathlock by the major parties is a good thing. If a party can't compete, doesn't have the constituency or the support to even survive in the political marketplace, perhaps then they should not be allowed to gum up the process and delude thinking voters into wasting their ballot rights.